MONTREAL — The Big Three are going to be reunited in the rafters at the Bell Centre — as they should be.

The Montreal Canadiens announced on Wednesday that they will retire No. 5 in honour of Guy Lapointe during the 2014-15 National Hockey League season. The club will hold a news conference Thursday morning at the Canadiens Hall of Fame in the Bell Centre to announce the details.

Lapointe’s No. 5 will join the No. 18 of Serge Savard and the No. 19 of Larry Robinson, the defencemen who formed The Big Three during the Canadiens’ 1970s dynasty years, with Lapointe part of six Stanley Cup teams. Savard’s number was retired in 2006 and Robinson’s in 2007.

Lapointe was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993, seven years after Savard and two years before Robinson. Lapointe, 66, still holds the record for most goals by a Canadiens defenceman in a season with 28 in 1974-75, and had three consecutive 20-goal years, scoring 21 in 1975-76 and 25 in 1976-77. Only one Canadiens defenceman has scored 20 goals since — Sheldon Souray with 26 during the 2006-07 season.

Lapointe ranks second in career goals by a Canadiens defenceman with 166, trailing Robinson’s 197. Savard scored 100 goals with the Habs. Lapointe also holds the team record for most goals by a rookie defenceman with 15.

The question many Canadiens fans will have now is: What took so long?

Lapointe’s daughter, Stephanie, started an online petition last year in hopes of getting a movement going to have her father’s number retired

“My autistic son (11-year-old Ryan), who knows everything about hockey, asked: ‘How come Grandpa’s not up there? He’s in the Hall of Fame and he’s got all these trophies,’ ” Stephanie said at the time. “I was like: ‘You know what? I don’t have an answer for you.’ I went to bed that night and told myself: ‘This is not OK.’ It was the Big Three and why is my Dad not there?”

After the news was announced Wednesday, Stephanie tweeted: “I am beyond proud of my dad! Finally he is being awarded this honour!”

When reached by telephone Wednesday afternoon, Stephanie didn’t want to take any credit for the Canadiens’ decision to honour her Dad and was reluctant to say anything before Thursday’s news conference.

“I’m really, really excited,” she did say. “It’s exploding everywhere on Twitter, but it’s really about my Dad, it’s not about what I did. His career and his Stanley Cups, they speak for themselves. And I really have a feeling that (Canadiens owner) Geoff Molson kind of knew all along that he was going to do this. I don’t think I deserve any credit … it’s really all on my Dad and I’m extremely, extremely proud of him. It’s amazing.”

Lapointe, who is now the co-ordinator of amateur scouting for the Minnesota Wild, had one of the best slap shots in the NHL during his playing days and posted 15-29-44 totals during his first full season with the Canadiens in 1970-71. After scoring 11 goals and adding 38 assists the following season, he was named to Team Canada for the Summit Series against the Soviet Union at age 24.

“I was just beginning to find my way around the NHL and I was trying to learn all the tricks of the trade,” he told reporters later. “When I arrived at the Team Canada training camp, I was in awe of all the great names there. I kept wondering: ‘Why Guy Lapointe? Why me? Why not a more experienced guy?’ ”

Lapointe never looked out of place, playing in seven of the eight games against the Soviets and helping Canada win the series.

Lapointe’s career with the Canadiens came to an end on March 9, 1982, when he was traded to the St. Louis Blues for a second-round draft pick in 1983 that turned out to be Sergio Momesso. Lapointe played his final NHL season with the Boston Bruins in 1983-84 after signing as a free agent and retired with 171-451-622 totals in 884 career regular-season games.

In Ken Dryden’s classic book, The Game, here’s how the Hall of Fame goalie described Lapointe:

“In the early and mid-1970s, except for Bobby Orr, Guy Lapointe was the best defenceman in the NHL,” wrote Dryden, whose No. 29 was retired by the Canadiens in 2007. “He was strong and powerful, an explosive skater with a hard, low shot, but what made him unique was the emotion he could bring to a game. During flat, lifeless stretches, uncalculated, he would suddenly erupt with enormous impatient fury, racing around the ice, daring and inspired on offence and defence, giving the game a new mood; turning it our way. It is a rare ability, and even as (Denis) Potvin and Robinson matured in mid-decade to push him onto second all-star teams and beyond, it was a skill that even they couldn’t match.”

Lapointe was also known as the team prankster, earning the nickname Pointu, and his daughter says he still likes to joke around with her and her two brothers, Guy Jr. and Jordan.

“I was young (during her father’s playing career) and my parents were divorced at a very young age, so my Dad had to take my brother and I to practice,” Stephanie recalled after she started her petition. “We’d get on the ice with the guys … Guy Lafleur helped teach me how to skate with a chair. We had to go to practice.

“I used to get up early with my Dad and have spaghetti for breakfast before practice,” she added.

After hanging up the phone Wednesday afternoon, Stephanie was heading home to tell her son the good news about his grandfather.